Tag Archives: brand management

2018 continues to be the year of Brand Safety for Brands, Advertisers and Agencies as the industry status quo was disrupted in 2017.

Many advertisers pulled or suspended their ad campaigns from YouTube and Google’s display network because the company put brands at risk by serving up inappropriate ads that conflicted with the value of advertisers.

Google has taken steps to address the issue and updated the YouTube Partnership Program in efforts to reduce the chance of ads being served up against inappropriate content. This is a great first step but where does the industry go from here?

For the industry to be successful, it is important that Brands feel that their Brand Safety will be protected. Brands need to deliver a consistent message to customers and prospects. When advertisers are showing messages that conflict with Brand values; consumer trust erodes. This can destroy a Brand.

Ultimately, a Brand is responsible for its safety.

· According to independent sources 70% of programmatic money in the UK is being used for various agency commissions leaving media platforms with 30%

· Brands are not sure how their media money is being used

However, for the industry to function successfully, Brands, Advertisers and Agencies need to collaborate; taking ownership of their respective role in the ecosystem. This collaboration, can take the form of: allowing Third party monitors from data science firms to examine data i.e. audit ad inventory, conduct site analysis, pre-bid targeting, keyword exclusion against Brand Guidelines and Standards.

How will these changes affect the digital landscape?

As Brands, Advertisers, and agencies collaborate more closely, allowing third parties to audit their work; campaign development and execution will take longer. More content moderators will be need to implement these changes. Google has announced that it will hire 10,000 Content Moderators this year to honor its commitment to Brand Safety. The fee structure of Advertising will need to be changed. Either the cost of advertising will increase or margins of Advertisers and Agencies will need to be cut.

Agencies will need to support the industry to overcome the issue of Brand Safety by: offering the above services to clients, providing clients with points of contact with partners that support client work, holding discussions/events on Brand Safety and offering guides on the topic.

Brands and Agencies, how do you address the issue of Brand Safety? Comment and share.

We are in the digital age. In this age, social networks are the wave of the future. Today’s consumer is empowered. Social consumers quickly share their thoughts about a product or an experience on Facebook, Twitter, Google and many other networks. Brands need to be present on social networks to interact and engage with the empowered consumer. More consumers are consulting their social networks for product recommendations. It is important for brands to listen to their customers on social networks.

image via shopify.com

Scenario

An article goes out on Twitter about how a customer credits a particular tool with helping her improve business results. A group of disgruntled Influencers and Industry insiders reply negatively claiming the story was paid for or sponsored by the company.

I would do the following to address the issue:

Handle the situation right away stating that the story was not paid for and that the customer was a satisfied user of the product

Edit the content to state that no one was paid for their opinion

To address Tweet that said, (“Company X just takes money from people to put up this crap- that tool sucks.”)

I would:

Ask them to explain why they felt that way and if they had an issue with the product

Share this with the company so they could address any issues these customers may have had with the product

I would take immediate action to make sure the situation was contained. My priority would be to protect the Company brand.

How have you handled challenges on Social Media? Comment and share below.

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including: Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to serving as a Classroom teacher, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.

He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 17,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 15,000 on WordPress.

Dan’s articles & insights on Sales, Marketing & Social Media have been featured, mentioned & referenced in major Business Publications such as:

•Recognized by Klout for having a Score putting him in the Top 10 % of Social Media Users

•LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score in the Top 1%

•Honored by SlideShare for being in the top 5% of profiles viewed in 2014

•Honored by LinkedIn in 2012 for being in the top 1% of profiles viewed out of 200 million members

Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. He is willing to be a CMO to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. Contact him to set up interviews. dan@dangalante.com

Blogging is a great way to build your brand and market your products to the masses. Writing a blog allows you to demonstrate your expertise through writing. Blogging helps to provide prospects and customers with valuable information. Providing valuable information helps to position you as an expert and a resource.

Popular blog posts formats are: How to’s, book reviews, interviews, analysis of trends in your industry and best of’s. I was approached by many people as a result of my blog. Now you are asking the question, “How did you get the idea to blog?”

I decided to write a blog while working on an assignment in the education field. This assignment required me get other people to work on their writing. One of the prompts I used asked the question, “What do you know a lot about?”

Make a list of topics, choose one and write a research paper on this topic.

This writing prompt made me think about the topics that I knew a lot about. The topics were Sales, Marketing, and Social Media. As a result, I decided to put my thoughts on these topics in writing. I launched Dan Galante’s Sales and Marketing blog in November 2011.

A blog is very easy to set up. The major blogging platforms are WordPress and tumblr. Both sites allow users to register for free. If you want to choose a custom domain name there is a fee. WordPress directly offers domain names for sale on their site. With tumblr, you will need to go to an outside provider and redirect the site to tumblr.

The WordPress and tumblr platforms have many features of Facebook and Twitter. You can re-blog an article. Re-blogging is sharing someone else’s content on your blog; similar to a retweet. Your fellow bloggers can also like your post and comment on it, similar to Facebook. These features are great for engagement. Articles can be tagged with relevant terms. You can then search out these terms to see all posts on that topic. This is similar to a hashtag on Twitter or SEO.

WordPress and tumblr allows bloggers to share articles on various social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest. You can use badges and plugins from your social networks to build a following and community. I have used this method to expand readership.

Guest blogging and syndication is another way to share your content. I am now syndicated on The Strategic HR blog.

Once you decide to start blogging, stick with it and publish quality content. Try to set up a writing schedule to maintain consistency. I shoot for once a week.

Blogging is a great way to get your message out. This is how you can build your brand with a blog.

When you are selling and marketing a brand x product, there are many challenges that you face. These challenges range from questions on product reliability to a lack of brand recognition.

One of the first things that I would handle is product reliability. This comes from the product development and engineering side of your business. The product has to be developed and tested to insure that it works properly. Nothing will destroy your credibility like under delivering on promises that you make about your product.

In terms of addressing questions on product reliability, I would offer a free trial of your product to both the end users and industry experts. If your product delivers on its promises you should be able to earn testimonials and endorsements. This will not only address product reliability but will also go a long way toward creating brand recognition for your product. Remember one of the most important things that a brand can cultivate in its customers is trust and advocacy. It is your job as a brand to turn your customer base into advocates.

In terms of building brand recognition, I would create a story for your product. This story should demonstrate how the product helped to solve a problem. As I said earlier, using testimonials from industry experts and end users alike will help build trust and get people to take that first step to try your product. One of the most valuable marketing tools is word of mouth. Social Media channels such as blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Pinterest and others help to spread your products story to the masses. I would also have a company website that integrates all of these channels. Exhibiting at industry trade shows and conferences is also a great way to get the word out about your product.

I was an outside sales rep in the dental industry with an equipment distribution company. Many of the product lines that I carried were not name brand. In the beginning many people I called on were reluctant to try products that they did not know. They would waver and say things like “I don’t know, I have never heard of this product”. After assuring the customer that it was reliable and comparable to their name brand product; I took on the role of brand ambassador by convincing customers to try just one or two items. After these customers tried the product, they switched from a name brand product to my off brand product! I turned skeptics into believers. I was able to use these customers to tell the story about the off brand product through testimonials and referrals.

I had an impact at the distributor level. For a really big impact, all of this needs to be done by the manufacturer. Product development, engineering, Sales and Marketing teams needs to work together to make sure that the product launch and market adoption take place. If you work with distributors you need to provide them with support to help them succeed.

Previously, I discussed about how to develop and market a product. In this post, I am going to discuss how you can build a brand for tomorrow. While attending the Pivot Conference in New York City, I learned that whether you are a start-up company or a large fortune 500, it imperative that you react and anticipate changes in your customers’ needs. For a brand to be successful today and in the future it has to be customer focused. In the past, brands would create content that consumers had to like. Today brands are co-created through shared experience with the consumers. This co-branding effort is happening on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Customers are sharing their experiences with the use of different products. They are liking their products on Facebook, sharing their thoughts on Twitter and posting YouTube videos. Brands such as Coke and Pepsi are great examples of this. Consumers want relationships with brands, they want to be part of the story.

It is imperative for brands to field consumer issues promptly. On Social Networking sites, every consumer has a voice. Social Media had enhanced the power of local word of mouth marketing and turned it to Global Marketing. With a few keystrokes, a message could be spread to the masses as the speed of sound. It goes without saying that if you a building a brand, you need to be where your customers are. So where are your consumers on social media? Social media is a place to share ideas and find information. The first generation of the internet was the era of the search engine. (Google) This generation of the internet is going to Facebook. When people make buying decisions, they are asking their network for advice. People also post product reviews on these sites and ask for advice. Another thing people are doing is friend sharing. Friend sharing is when people take pictures of products and ask their friend’s opinion. Friend sharing can also take the form of just asking your friend’s opinion about whether to buy a product. Earlier this evening, I purchased a book on Amazon.com. After I checked out, the site asked me if I want to share this purchase with my network on Twitter and Facebook.

If you are a brand presented with this information, you might be thinking this is great but how can I capitalize on this information? Here are the steps that every brand should take.

1 Do research on your target market. How do they buy the products that you are selling? How do they interact with brands? I spoke about this in my last post. Is this group using social media? If yes, then how? What purpose are they using it? Where are they dominant, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc…?

2 Make sure that your products and services are top quality. Nothing will sink you faster than products and services that do not deliver what they promise.

3 Have your products tell a story. The brands of today and tomorrow are co-created as I said earlier. In other words brands no longer own the content created. Your brand has to be focused on the needs of your customers. Make sure to engage your audience and have them create the content with your brand. Customers are engaged through experiences. Your brand has to be focused on the needs of your customers. When content is co-created, there is more engagement. This higher level of engagement will lead to more sales of your products and services.

4 Be sure to engage industry influencers of the products and services you provide. Provide these people with free sample products. Allow these people to try them out and share their thoughts with their networks.

5 Make sure your brand is on Facebook, LinkedInTwitter, YouTube and Google+ allocating your advertising budget based on how your target market uses these sites. Have multiple pages on these sites that are culturally relevant to each country and part of the world your brand does business in. Your brand should also have multiple websites with blogs that are informative and user-friendly. These sites and blogs should provide links to social networking sites.

6 Handle any customer complaints and issues immediately. If the complaint is voiced on a social networking site, address it and do not ignore the concern. As a brand online, you can set your reputation in this new era. Local Word of Mouth Marketing has become Global Marketing. Content can be shared on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook. What is your brands reputation online? You can use reputation management tools such as Google alerts to see the kinds of things people post about your brand.

7 Consumers see brands as one entity and not a series of department. Sales, Marketing Customer Service, Engineering and Product development need to be structured into specific product task-forces to be able to meet customers’ needs and ultimately anticipate future needs. Members from top management need to be a part of these task forces.

Anticipating customer needs and wants is what will determine what brands survive this era of Social Darwinism. This is how to build the brands of tomorrow.